Trainee English teachers have created a storm by engaging a tutor from a top tutorial school to help them pass a language proficiency test.
About 30 students from the Hong Kong Institute of Education signed up for yesterday's lecture by Edward Fung - a tutor from Beacon College, one of the top three tutorial schools in the city.
Fung shared his experience in sitting the Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers (English Language) and tips on how to tackle the questions. He scored a distinction for the writing part.
'I was very honoured by the invitation,' he said. 'I mostly taught them how to analyse past papers and exam reports.'
Posters promoting the lecture on campus sported the logos of Beacon College and the institute. But an institute spokeswoman said they had not endorsed the lecture. 'It's not appropriate to use our logo, which would give the impression we were one of the organisers.'
She said the institute had a compulsory course for the exam for second-year English majors, taught by trained assessors. 'Our self-access language-learning centre also offers workshops on the exam.'
The talk received overwhelming response from students. Gabriel Wong, a postgraduate student studying English, said the talk was more useful than the courses available at the institute. 'He gave us many examples, especially for the writing part,' Wong said.